Facebook Chatter: Trump Way Ahead Of Rivals

Facebook continues to be dominated by Donald Trump even at a time when observers are wondering if his campaign is losing steam. Trump generated the most interactions on Facebook than any other candidate in either party in the period between Aug. 30 and Sept. 29, says a report from The Politico.

Most popular on Facebook

Interactions on Facebook include likes, shares, comments and posts, and in the stated period, nearly 22 million people generated nearly 94.3 million interactions about Trump in the U.S. He also led several early nominating contests in many states. In Iowa, he generated 873,000 interactions, while in New Hampshire he had 452,000, and in South Carolina, he generated 1.5 million. In July also Trump was dominant on Facebook in Iowa. It must be noted that these numbers are not indicative of the tenor on the interactions. They could either be negative, neutral or positive towards the candidates, including Trump.

Only two Republicans come close to matching Trump’s numbers. First is the former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who received a total of 13.2 million Facebook interactions from 4.15 million people across the nation, while the next is retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who secured 27.6 million Facebook interactions by 6.1 million people.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, both competing for the Democratic nomination, surpass Carson and Fiorina. Nationwide, Clinton generated 37.97 million interactions by close to 9 million people. Trailing behind her was Sanders, who garnered 33.4 million interactions from 6.5 million people.

Trump effectively leveraging social media

Apart from Facebook, Trump is also quite popular on Twitter. Trump, a billionaire developer, former reality TV star and putative leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, is making use of all the social networking tools for pouring out his thoughts and views to millions of people without even spending a single dime.

The other candidates have also made sincere efforts to craft digital strategies with an aim to reach new and younger constituencies via media tools like Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram. However, none have been able to come close to the reach of Trump’s online persona. Trump has a following of 8 million people across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram combined. Trump is way ahead of his closest Republican competitor, Ben Carson, who has a combined following of 3.3 million.

Trump leads the pack in national polls and in vital early-voting states, though the race has tensed up since the second GOP debate.